New Lil Wayne Art Raid Details Emerge, $30M Disputed

When fans saw during the Lil Wayne artwork raid on November 4 that he had an art collection worth $30 million dollars, they wanted to know more.

Unfortunately, finding information online about Lil Wayne’s individual pieces of art in his collection in Miami is difficult. Search engine results including the keywords “Lil Wayne” and “art” often reveal detailed information about mixtape or album cover art — but not necessarily the kinds of art used in an investment portfolio.

The big question the media and fans have been asking is whether or not the public will get to know if Lil Wayne’s $30 million art collection is truly worth it — and which pieces Lil Wayne owns.

For example, Apollo Magazine writes the following in their “Rakewell” column on November 7.

“The Rake’s thoughts go out to Mr. Wayne, but he can’t help but wonder what the rapper’s taste in art might be. Having once identified as the ‘renaissance man’ (‘…peep my repertoire’) and claimed to be in possession of ‘a code like Da Vinci’, he does not doubt Weezy’s discernment.”

Although there are few pieces of evidence online about Lil Wayne’s art collection, TMZ did point out that the police seized his artwork and “several plaques” — but no one is sure if it was Lil Wayne’s plaque for Tha Carter. Could this mean that Lil Wayne’s art is in forms other than oil paintings?

TMZ also reported that the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s deputies “brought along someone who valued the items inside the house so they could figure out what to seize.”

On the other hand, the claim by Fortune and others that Lil Wayne has $30 million in artwork is being disputed. On November 5, The Pop Life podcast stated the raid incident began when Lil Wayne’s lawyers thought they had found a loophole with the case.

They go on to say that the lawyers told Lil Wayne that he did not have to allow police to seize his assets if he did not let the police into the house. If they were not in the Lil Wayne’s house, they could not assess his property to take possession to repay the $2 million.

The Pop Life states that despite the loophole, the Signature Group (that Lil Wayne owed money to) went back to the judge to have an assessor added to the police seizure team.

Lil Wayne's Miami home has had a lot of police activity in 2015 with an artwork raid in November and a swarm of police were also there around March 10 when shots were allegedly fired. (Picture by Getty Images)

It is alleged in the podcast that on the day of Lil Wayne’s artwork seizure, one of the security team was at Lil Wayne’s Miami mansion. Lil Wayne’s security did not answer the door at first, but the police threatened the security team into complying (perhaps by threatening arrests). The police allegedly produced the warrants and may have forced themselves inside the minute the door was cracked.

The Pop Life went on to say that Lil Wayne was likely wrongfully persecuted since a rap star of his status likely had the money to pay the $2 million. Instead, they claim that Lil Wayne’s money was probably temporarily frozen in the Cash Money/Birdman lawsuit.

Nevertheless, The Pop Life did not think Lil Wayne has $30 million of artwork in the first place because an art collection with this high of a price tag is usually only seen in a museum.

Another interesting question posed by The Pop Life was what will happen if the Signature Group sells the artwork — and it is far more money than the $2 million they are owed? Would they give the residual $28 million in auction sales back to Lil Wayne?

Obviously, many questions remain unresolved, but answers may be on the way. For instance, Lil Wayne was near Miami just a few days after the raid. According to CL Tampa, Lil Wayne was performing in Florida on November 7, but there is no word currently on whether he was there to sort out the raid happenings.

In Lil Wayne’s “Krazy,” there is a lyric that says “They paint me as a villain, I just autograph the artwork.” Was Lil Wayne giving a nod to the vast array of fan art depicting him that can be found online? For instance, a few websites that carry fan art with Lil Wayne’s likeness are Red Bubble, Fine Art America, and Deviant Art.

In addition to fine art or the Lil Wayne memorabilia found on eBay, there are lots of Lil Wayne crafts on websites like Etsy. For example, Lil Wayne handmade items include a Saint Weezy devotional candle, a pair of wooden earrings with Lil Wayne’s portrait, and a “best wrapper alive” Christmas card.